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How entertaining? ★☆☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 24 May 2012
This article is a review of EARTH 2. |
“I think they’re trying to approach us through Alonso’s dreams,” Doctor Julia Heller.
There are five discs to the EARTH 2 television show, 1015 minutes. I made it to the end of the first DVD, three episodes (including the double-length pilot), 180 minutes. I couldn’t take anymore. Torture on a scale that may have breached the European Convention on Human Rights. I usually look forward to sci-fi, especially projects not on my radar. There have been stunning examples over the last few years, from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA to FIREFLY, from CHILDREN OF MEN to DISTRICT 9.
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EARTH 2 aired in the US from 1994, before it was axed after one season. It is a futuristic Western and an environmental parable. No longer sustaining the circle of life, humans in 2192 live on space stations. The population is starting to die out, as there is a disease, the “Syndrome”, decimating children; those struck down have a nine-year life expectancy. There is a project to relocate to a habitable planet discovered 22 light-years away, the boringly named G889. However, a plot by the government, of the orbital communities, to destroy the space voyage in fear of losing control of the people, is thwarted at the last moment. This murderous attempt makes very little sense, as it would take 44 years at least to get there and back again (or to send a message intimating all is safe) – the ruling classes would probably be dead by then.
Having made it to G889, conveniently the landing party have crashed and scattered across the surface. The mission then becomes to cross the terrain to a place called New Pacifica, to set up a base before the rest of the 200 colonist families come out of space sleep and join them on the surface. Talk about convoluted.
The focus of the show is Devon Adair (Debrah Farentino), whose son Ulysses (cloyingly called Uly throughout) suffers from the Syndrome. Her word is the say-so, but it’s not clear why. Devon is neither military nor a politician. I did some research and it says that she’s the billionaire behind the voyage, which is not mentioned. The pilot episode is deeply flawed. We are dropped into proceedings, not in an interesting way. It’s a case of a little scene setting and character building before grabbing onto the throttle and driving us to the next section. (The only bit of throttle in the whole thing.) Laziness permeates EARTH 2, seeping into the narrative, dialogue, special effects and imaginative scope. The characters are bland, the aliens are laughable, and the acting ranges from prosaic to hammy. The list of inadequacies is too numerable, culminating in a lethargic pace and repetitive storytelling. Dire.
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